Making Fitness Fun and Convenient

By: Jason Weir, Ogle Elementary, Frisco ISD

As a new Healthy Zone School-In Training, it was important for us to help provide our teachers with opportunities to live a healthy lifestyle. We found one consistent factor was holding our teachers back from exercising on a regular basis. Our teachers had the will and the desire to exercise but often struggled to find a time in their schedules to consistently exercise due to the strenuous demands of work and outside life activities. Knowing this information, our wellness team collaborated on how we could address this issue... Read more

Let’s Get Moving

By Cheryl Derrington, Northwood Hills Elementary, Richardson ISD

As a new Healthy Zone School in Training, we used January 4, 2017 as our kick-off to a healthy new year with the theme “Let’s Get Moving!” Our activities on this date included “Wake Up and Walk Wednesday,” Zumba classes throughout the day, and a healthy lunch for our staff. Our goal this year is for both our staff members and our students to get moving and get healthy by increasing their healthy choices and activity level with friends in a fun, relaxed, environment.

We started the day with “Wake Up and Walk... Read more

4th Annual Health Fair & Jam the Gym Night

By Beverly Wardwell, Lister Elementary, Garland ISD

The 4 th Annual Health Fair and Jam the Gym Night at Lister Elementary in Garland was held on Thursday, November 17. This event combines fun activities for parents to do with their children as well as opportunities for families to become aware of health resources in the community. Our hope is that families will have an increased awareness of activities that they can do at home as well as opportunities in their community/school for physical activities that are family focused. In addition, knowledge of nutrition will... Read more

Staff Volleyball Tournament

By Joey Cobb, Meadows Elementary, Plano ISD

The Meadows Elementary Staff Volleyball Tournament was created as a staff building activity to help improve and create awareness for staff health and wellness. The tournament is mandatory for all staff to participate in either as a player or a cheerleader. All staff signs up for a team consisting of eight players and eight cheerleaders and are assigned a color. The staff really goes all out with their team color by making uniforms and the staff signed up to cheer for the team comes up with cheers and a cute outfit with pom... Read more

Fall Field Day

By Jenny Nations, Ditto Elementary, Arlington ISD

This year’s goal for our fall field day was to create a school wide celebration of fitness. We used 20 different stations featuring our new equipment to reinforce the skills learned in class. Students traveled in small groups around to each station led by student leaders from our 5 th and 6 th grades. Each grade level (K-6) had a designated time to participate in these events. Total students participating was approximately 750. We invited parents to come enjoy watching their child participate. In previous years, we have had... Read more

FUEL UP TO PLAY 60 KICKOFF

By Anthony Attanasio, Nichols Elementary, Frisco ISD

We had a great opportunity to have Brandon Carr Defensive Back for the Dallas Cowboys and Rowdy the Dallas Cowboys mascot come to Nichols Elementary to kick off the Fuel Up to Play 60 program at our school. The Fuel Up to Play 60 program encourages youth to combine a diet of nutrient-rich foods with 60-minutes of activity every day. The American Heart Association recommends children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. We encourage students to get 30 minutes of activity a day here at school and encourage them... Read more

Sigler Chefs!

By Stacey Nichols, Sigler Elementary, Plano ISD

Sigler Chefs is an after school cooking club. Our school decided to offer the class to 3 rd grade students. Each teacher chose 4 students from her class and asked the child if they wanted to participate. (Permission slips were signed, of course!) We had 16 students in the class this spring. We prepared healthy snacks in the school lounge. We focused on fruit, vegetables, whole grains and proteins. What do our students learn during cooking class? Sequencing, following directions, math skills (fractions, doubling recipes), reading, how... Read more

Exercise Equipment in the Classroom

By Nicholas Relle, McGowen Elementary, McKinney ISD

I wanted to give the students the ability to move instead of being stationary in the classroom. As an adult, I have problems sitting still in an hour-long faculty meeting; I can’t imagine sitting the entire day learning. With the help of HZS funding we were able to purchase 18 under the desk pedals and 22 exercise balls. The idea was to give students the ability to be active while also learning in their classroom.

The pedals were distributed amongst our 3 rd -5 th grade classes. Each class was given a set, unless they had... Read more

It’s Not Easy Being Green…or Is it?

By Roxanne Clarkson, Corey Elementary, Arlington ISD

We were very fortunate in that our Art teacher had already scheduled a Family Art Night for our Corey students and parents. Our thoughts were what better way to support her AND get kids on board with our smoothie ideas than have a taste test! This way we weren’t in charge of the entire event and we could focus all of our energies on the smoothies; and at the same time, sign more students up for Fuel Up to Play 60 while their parents were there to help out. This worked our VERY well! The kids didn’t bombard us because they had... Read more

Creating Lasting Partnerships: Healthy Zone and Texas Instruments

By: Joey Cobb, Meadows Elementary, Plano ISD

Creating lasting community partnerships is key to the success of any school program. Thanks to the Healthy Zone School Recognition Program® we have built a great partnership with Texas Instruments. By utilizing the grant connections that Healthy Zone informs us about, most specifically United Way’s relationship with Texas Instruments, we were able to put in a substantial school garden at Meadows Elementary with 32 raised beds. However, this is an ongoing process and we are still trying to raise funds to fully complete it. Thanks to Texas... Read more